Iran arrests ten Baha'i women as crackdown on minorities continues

"That delusional fantasist claimed that Iran has been weakened," Khamenei told a group of his supporters in Tehran, without elaborating. "The future will reveal who has truly been weakened."

In the last week, US President Donald Trump, his predecessor Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have all described Iran as weakened.

They cited Tehran's reduced influence in the region following the fall of its ally Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria, Israeli attacks on its air defense capabilities and the killing of leaders of its armed Palestinian and Lebanese allies.

Khamenei said former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein started the invasion of Iran in September 1980 and then-US president Ronald Reagan provided significant support to his regime, both "under the illusion that Iran was weak."

"They, along with dozens of other deluded individuals, ultimately met their demise, while the Islamic regime grew stronger day by day. I tell you, this experience will be repeated once again this time," he added.

His comments came two days after Trump's return to the White House and at a time when his administration is potentially weighing whether to support a possible Israeli air strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Asked whether Trump would support such an attack, his national security advisor Mike Waltz said: "This is a moment to make those key decisions, and we'll be doing that over the next month."

Speaking on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday, Waltz also said Iran's regional position is under strain with its air defenses destroyed and key allies diminished. He credited Israeli attacks for what he called a strategic shift in the Middle East.

Khamenei, however, referred to the recent ceasefire in Gaza as a victory for the Iran-led Resistance Front and "a clear sign of the realization of the prediction that resistance is alive and will endure."

He emphasized that without US support, Israel would have collapsed within the first weeks after October 7, 2023, when Tehran-backed Hamas militants attacked Israel and killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

"Over the past year and a few months, the Zionist regime committed every atrocity it could, bombing homes, hospitals, mosques and churches in a small area like Gaza, Khamenei said.

"Yet in the end, it not only failed to achieve the goal set by its miserable and discredited leader—eliminating Hamas and governing Gaza without resistance—but was also forced to sit at the negotiation table with Hamas and accept its terms for a ceasefire."

Trump has signaled stepped-up support for Israel and a renewed hard line on Iran.

The hawkish new president is due to lift Biden's freeze on delivering 2,000-pound bombs to Israel in his first days in the White House, Israeli news outlet Walla News reported this week, citing Israel's ambassador to Washington.

"What is happening before the eyes of the world seems like a legend," Khamenei continued, "where a massive military apparatus like that of the United States, indifferent to human values, provides bunker-busting bombs to the oppressive and bloodthirsty Zionist regime."

The Friday Prayer Imam of Abadan, a city known for housing the Middle East's oldest oil refinery, recently criticized the granting of concert permits, calling them sinful and claiming that music events anger God, leading to a lack of rain.

Following Abdolhossein Ghobishavi's statement, the provincial ideological department canceled several concert permits for February, according to local media reports.

This move contradicts an order from President Masoud Pezeshkian's administration, which has instructed all official bodies and ministries not to block music events.

Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, most forms of music have been banned from state television and radio.

Artists and performers face lengthy processes to obtain permits for releasing songs or holding concerts, and female singers are typically prohibited from performing.

Citing unnamed security officials in two western countries, the FT said this shipment could be used to produce propellant for hundreds of Iranian mid-range missiles.

This amount of sodium perchlorate could produce 960 tons of ammonium perchlorate, which could produce 1,300 tons of propellant,enough to fuel 260 mid-range Iranian missiles such as the KheibarShekan or Haj Qassem, the officials said.

The chemicals are being shipped to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Bandar Abbas, a port in southern Iran, according to the officials.

"There is always hope people will choose rationality, Zarif said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “I hope that this time around, a 'Trump 2' will be more serious, more focused, more realistic."

On any potential pressure from the new administration on Iran to give up its nuclear program, Zarif told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that Tehran would not be convinced by force.

“Nobody thinks of Iran as such an easy place to carry out their whims. So we can move forward, move forward based on opportunity rather than based on threats.”

Tehran has gained more nuclear capabilities since the United States withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal, he added, but maintained Iran does not seek nuclear weapons and poses no threat to the world.

Starting in 2006, the UN Security Council implemented multiple rounds of sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear program.

In 2015, many of these economic sanctions were suspended under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal. After the US announced its withdrawal from the JCPOA in 2018, nuclear-related sanctions were reinstated.

Relaxed hijab enforcement

Zarif, a relative moderate, also addressed Tehran's new hijab law which UN experts have labeled a further "assault on women’s rights and freedoms.”

"If you go to the streets of Tehran, you see that there are women who are not covering their hair. It's against the law, but the government has decided not to put women under pressure," Zarif said. "And this was a promise that President Pezeshkian made. And the promise is being observed."

The controversial new law imposes harsher penalties on women and girls who defy the Islamic veiling requirements. In response to significant backlash from both the public and the international community, the Islamic Republic has officially postponed its implementation. The country's existing mandatory hijab law remains in effect, with other penalties still enforced.

At Davos, Zarif argued that President Pezeshkian is not personally enforcing the new hijab law but has the support of the country's leadership, which he defined as the head of parliament, the head of the judiciary, and other key figures, including the National Security Council.

"So, we're moving in the right direction," Zarif said.

According to several human rights groups, the crackdown on women over the hijab has continued since nationwide protests erupted in 2022, following the killing of Mahsa Jina Amini in the custody of the so-called morality police.

The new law was initially drafted in May 2023, less than a year after the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising.

In December 2024, Iran's Supreme National Security Council sent a letter to parliament requesting that the process of implementing the Hijab and Chastity law be halted. The letter proposed that the government submit an amended bill to parliament, according to a member of the Parliament's presiding board.

"The most relevant question is Iran and relations between Iran, Israel and the United States," Antonio Guterres said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, referring to Iran's two archenemies with which Iran has no diplomatic ties.

"Here my hope is that the Iranians understand that it is important to once and for all make it clear that they will renounce to have nuclear weapons, at the same time that they engage constructively with the other countries of the region."

His comments come as a top Iranian official said Monday that Tehran's nuclear program remains central to strengthening national security and deterring international threats.

“Over the years, adversaries have tried to weaken Iran’s progress in this field and entangle the country in international conflicts,” said Behrouz Kamalvandi, Iran's spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), during a military conference in Tehran on Monday.

Iranian hardliners have previously advocated for developing nuclear weapons as a deterrent. After Israeli airstrikes on October 26, Javan, a newspaper linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), called on Tehran to consider pursuing nuclear arms to counter external threats.

In October of the previous year, in the wake of the Gaza war sparked by Iran-backed Hamas, 39 Iranian lawmakers urged the Supreme National Security Council to reassess the nation's defense strategy and explore the potential adoption of nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, newly sworn-in US Secretary of State Marco Rubio informed Congress that President Donald Trump intends to pursue the reinstatement of United Nations sanctions on Iran, which were lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal.

Tehran has voiced concerns that the Trump administration could embolden Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to contemplate strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, exacerbating the already volatile security situation in the region.